


Knowers and Demons VII: Nothing Is Quite What It Seems

by EnthusiasticFish



Series: Knowers and Demons [7]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-02-01
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:06:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,895
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29135262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EnthusiasticFish/pseuds/EnthusiasticFish
Summary: There's one more tale to tell. ...and one more Road picture to watch. One year after the Fracture, things aren't back to normal, although most of the world went on without thinking about the brief blip in which things changed. But not everyone. A small group becomes determined to find out what happened and who was responsible.
Series: Knowers and Demons [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2116893
Kudos: 3





	1. Chapter 1

**Nothing Is Quite What It Seems  
** by Enthusiastic Fish

_In the real world, as in dreams_   
_Nothing is quite what it seems._   
_Dean Koontz_

**Chapter 1**

"The world broke. That's all. Things break. When they break, you have to fix them. Sure, if it's not something important, you'll toss it in the trash, but when you're talking about the whole world, you have to do something about it, right? Well, that's what happened. The world broke, and it got fixed."

"And _you_ fixed it."

"That's funny. That's _really_ funny. I don't fix things. When they're broken, I'll call a repairman."

"If you didn't, then, why do you know about it?"

"I don't. You're the one who thinks I do. I'm just going along with your little fantasy."

"Everyone knows that something happened."

"They do?"

"Yes. Everyone. It was all over the news for weeks."

"It's not, now. No one cares. They're living their lives. That's what you should do. Live your life and let me do the same. Now, if you'll excuse me..."

"You know more than you're admitting."

"Well, I'm not admitting to anything at all; so I guess that's probably true. I know how to turn on my computer. I know how to..."

"What did you do?"

"Me? Well, I clapped my hands and believed in fairies. And you know what? It actually worked."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_Earlier that day..._

Tim took a breath and walked out of his building and got into his car. When he reached it without anything happening, he sighed with relief.

He tried not to show it, but a year on from his brush with oblivion, with non-existence, he still was afraid that he'd find cracks in the world he'd remade. There was give, he'd been told, but how much?

And what about his dragons? They were still there on his hand...only with one important difference.

They weren't invisible any longer. Ziva and Abby still commented on how weird it was that boring Tim McGee had decided to get a tattoo on the palm of his hand. And such a strange one, too.

Sometimes, he wondered what that meant. Most of the time, he tried not to think about it. He constantly worried that he would do something that would make his tattoo move. Tony had finally stopped trying to get him to talk about it.

Tim knew that he'd never fully recovered from what had happened. Everyone had noticed that he was a little different, a little more brittle. He tried not to show it, but he had failed. What did that mean? Well, nothing really. No one brought it up and Tim didn't discuss it.

Almost no one. Ducky tried every so often, but Tim had put him off. He knew that at least part of Ducky's worry stemmed from Tim's brief period in a psychiatric facility. There never had been any genuine explanation for his supposed breakdown.

"Enough reminiscing," Tim said to himself. "Just live your life. You're not a knower anymore. There are no more demons. Just let things be normal."

He sighed and put his car in gear. Time to get to work.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony waited to see how Tim was today. He had varying degrees of tension when he came in to work. While he'd mostly recovered, he'd never fully recovered. He worried. He worried _a lot_. It was too bad, too, because Tim had gone through so much to fix reality, but he hadn't really fixed himself. Tony had tried to help him, but Tim had ended up resisting any conversation that referred to what had happened.

It was probably for the best. If the wrong person heard them, they might get asked some very difficult questions.

Still, he hated that it wasn't going the way he had wanted it to.

Sometimes, he felt that they'd watched _Road to Bali_ too soon.

The elevator dinged and Tim walked in, looking as normal as he ever did, which meant that he didn't seem actively afraid of anything.

"Good morning, Tim."

"Morning."

Tim clenched his fist and kept moving. Tony knew what that was for. The tattoo. Tim's dragons had remained. At first, it had been a relief because it meant, for Tim, that he had the connection he'd relied on so much. Then, it had been a problem because people could see it, now.

That was something Tony didn't understand. He wanted to talk to Tim about it, but Tim wouldn't. He was still wondering if he should just push it, but so far, he hadn't done that. Ducky tried to get Tim to open up on occasion, but because of Ducky's limited perspective on Tim's problem, Tim wasn't likely to speak to him, either. Gibbs and Ziva both knew that _something_ had happened and that Tim had been heavily involved, but they both kept whatever they thought about all that to themselves.

...and _no one_ talked about it whether they knew anything or not. Normally, Tony would be happy to avoid the difficult topics. It generally made life easier, but in this case, Tony _really_ wanted something to break the impasse.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim could feel Tony watching him all day. He didn't know how to explain what frightened him, still. It was hard knowing that he shouldn't exist, that he shouldn't be there...and yet he was. Every morning, he woke up, knowing that he should have vanished from existence, that no one should even have known about him. Whatever Tony had done to bring him back...what if that caused the world to break again?

 _I can't go through that again,_ Tim thought to himself. It was a common thought. Maybe it made him weak, but Tim didn't feel very strong, not after everything that had happened.

When they were released, Tim left without lingering. He walked out of the building and then stopped and stared at his tattoo.

"Hey, Tim. What's up?"

Tim jumped, quickly clenched his fist, and looked back. He smiled a little at Tony.

"I'm fine, Tony."

Tony laughed. "That wasn't very convincing...since that's not what I was asking."

"I'm still fine."

"Whether you are or not, ignoring it hasn't really helped, has it?"

Tim shrugged.

"Hey, you know I'm not the guy who tries to make people talk...but you're not really fine, Tim. You're okay, but you're way too worried to be fine."

"I'd rather not talk about it, Tony."

"Who else _can_ you talk to but me? I'm the only person in the world who knows exactly what happened...what you did and the price you almost had to pay."

Tim winced. "I'd _really_ rather not talk about that, Tony."

"Maybe that's why you should. Heck, when we get in a life-and-death situation at work, we have to see a shrink. What you went through was a lot worse and there's no shrink in the world who wouldn't think you were nuts."

Tim smiled at that. "I almost wish I was." He opened his fist and lifted up his tattooed palm. "Then, this would just be evidence of an impulsive moment, not the thing that keeps me sane."

"Well, you're not crazy, but everyone can see that there's something going on with you. They're just not talking about it."

"I'm okay with that."

"Tim, come on. You're not yourself right now, and you haven't been for a year. Why not try and get more back?"

Tim clenched his fist again. Part of him was tempted, but most of him was not. He just wanted to forget about that part of his life if he could, and he couldn't if he kept talking about it.

"Tony, I appreciate it, but I don't want to talk about it. It'll take time to get over it, and that's all I need. Just time."

"How much? It's already been a year."

"Well, it's not like I can ask anyone else about it," Tim said, feeling a little irritated. "This happens to be a unique situation. All of that is over. I'm not a knower anymore! There are no demons! There's just...reality, and I am fine with that. I'll see you tomorrow."

Tim walked away, hoping that Tony wouldn't push it.

He didn't and Tim was able to get to his car without anyone bothering him.

...but once he was there, he sighed and looked at his hand again.

Then, quietly, he whispered a rhyming couplet he had heard over and over again.

"'In the real world, as in dreams  
Nothing is quite what it seems.'"

Another sigh and he headed home.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tony watched Tim leave and he sighed. One thing that he did miss, regardless of everything else, was the friendship he and Tim had shared over the years because of Tony's involvement in Tim's brushes with the supernatural. Because Tim was trying to avoid that stuff, he had also avoided Tony to some degree, and that meant they weren't as close as they'd been before. He didn't want to admit it, but Tony wished that Tim would allow that much.

He sighed again and headed home.

When he pulled up to his place, he got out and started for his door. He sensed someone behind him, and he tensed up a little. He lived in a safe area, but that didn't mean it would always be completely safe.

Then, there were two people in front of him in addition to the one person behind. No point in pretending he didn't see them.

"I've had a long day," he said. "I don't suppose you could just let me go to bed?"

To their credit, the men in front of him didn't act surprised, nor did they get shifty. They weren't worried about being seen. They weren't worried about him at all. To Tony, that meant he would be better off _not_ trying to fight them off. Not right now when he was outnumbered.

"Come with us and answer our questions, and you may get back to your bed, tonight."

"Can't you just ask me right here?"

"No. Let's go."

Inside, Tony was a little worried. Outside, he made a show of being annoyed.

"You're really ruining my day, you know."

"You'd know better than us."

Something about the way they spoke made Tony a little nervous about what questions they wanted answered. He let them lead him out of the building and into the back seat of a car.

"Now, what?" he asked.

"Now, you go blind for a while."

They blindfolded him before he could think of something witty to retort and then, the car started moving.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

Try as he might, Tim couldn't get to sleep that night. Tony's words kept coming back to him, and since he didn't sleep well in most circumstances, this meant that insomnia was far to easy to fall into.

Still, as he lay in bed, he fell into a kind of intermediate state. He was awake and could hear and see around him, but he didn't feel like he could control anything. He lay there, and suddenly his tattooed hand raised into the air, palm up. As he watched, the tattoo started to quiver.

_No,_ Tim thought. _No, that's not supposed to happen anymore._

The dragons took a translucent form and leapt off his hand, swirling around each other. At first, they were just black, like the tattoo. Then, he saw flashes of color. Red...green...blue...

He tried to clench his fist, but he couldn't. All he could do was stare.

The dragons began to take on the colors they'd normally had before.

_No. Stop._

They didn't obey his thought. They began to move all over his hand. They were small. The same size as his tattoo, but they were moving.

Tim didn't understand what was going on, but he couldn't stop it. He wasn't afraid, but he was worried...like he always was.

Then, the dragons lifted themselves off his hand. They were still translucent, still flashing colors, still moving constantly.

All of a sudden, they curled into a knot, moving so quickly they were just a blur of colors. Then, before Tim could do anything, or even _think_ of doing anything, they dove at his face.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The car slowed to a stop.

"We're here. Let's go."

Tony was worried, but he didn't know if he needed to be worried about his life. They didn't seem to be keen on hurting him, but then, if everything were completely kosher, they wouldn't have bothered blindfolding him.

The car door opened and Tony was led out of the car.

"There are some steps here."

"How many?"

"Five."

Tony stumbled up the steps. They were wooden, felt a bit rickety. He could tell by the change of the sound that they were on a covered porch, but the sound wasn't restricted enough to be a small one. Maybe it was one of those that went across the entire front of the house.

"Inside."

The door opened without any creaking. The steps creaked, but door didn't. Hmmm...

As they led him, Tony tried to pay attention to everything he could. If he got a chance to run for it, he wanted to know, more or less, where to go to get out.

They walked inside. There was a rug on the floor. He heard them close and lock the door. It was a deadbolt.

"Up the stairs. Don't ask how many. It's a flight."

"Okay."

They led him forward again, up a flight of stairs. They curved just slightly. The stairs were wooden and didn't feel enclosed.

"Go get him. Tell him we're here."

"Right."

Someone else was in charge of this, huh. Interesting.

They got to the top of the stairs and he was led to the right, down a long hallway. Then, to the left, into a room. The room felt empty...or at least, mostly empty.

"Have a seat."

"Why, thank you," Tony said with only a little bit of sarcasm.

The chair he sat on was wooden. No pad. Straight back.

"How long do I sit here? This chair isn't comfortable enough for me. I'm not going to buy it."

"Stay there, smart guy."

"Can I take off the blindfold, yet?"

"No."

Tony sighed again.

There were at least two people in the room, and being blind (for the moment), those weren't exactly the best odds. Tony knew that he could be impulsive, but he also was smart enough to know that there were good reasons to avoid that behavior in certain situations. This seemed to be that kind of situation. So, while the silence fell and he was being left to his own devices, Tony tried to figure out where he was with respect to the rest of the room.

He thought about what he'd heard. He hadn't been turned around; so it was logical to think that he was facing the door. Far from it? That would be hard to figure out without shouting or something. That might be a little obvious, though. One of his guards was standing opposite him, probably in front of the door.

The thing Tony couldn't figure out was why he hadn't been restrained in any way. They seemed to take it for granted that he was going to do what they said. He wondered why.

Then, the door opened and someone came in. Two someones. The one in charge and the one who'd gone to get him, most likely.

A thump. A wooden thump right in front of him. Another chair. He heard a little scrape as the other person sat down.

There was a long pause. Tony decided it was up to him to break the ice.

"So...uh, I don't know what does it for you, but I usually like to see the person who's staring at me."

"I didn't think you would need to see. Don't you already _know_ what's going on?"

That emphasis on the word _know_ made Tony _really_ nervous. If this person knew anything about what had gone on last year, he had chosen that word deliberately.

"Clearly, I don't," Tony said, deliberately _not_ using the word.

Another silence.

"You can take the blindfold off."

"Thank you."

Tony took off the blindfold and blinked a few times. He was in a room. There was a man sitting about three feet away from him. There were two men by the door. Casually, Tony turned around in the chair and looked at the other man standing in front of the single window. It had drawn blinds. The room itself was the epitome of bland. There was no other furniture. It had taupe walls.

"Seen enough?"

"Well, I have to say that you need to work on your staging. No crown molding, frayed, degrading carpet. This is bland. No one will be impressed by this room."

The man smiled slightly. "I don't care about impressing anyone. I care about getting answers."

"Well, I make no guarantee to know the answers to your questions, but ask away."

"One year ago."

"Yeah?"

"The entire world had a moment of thinking something happened."

"Yeah?"

"What happened?"

Tony laughed. "Why do you think I can answer _that_ question? Do you know what my job is? I'm a federal agent. I'm not in on that kind of information."

"No one has that information. Except you."

"Why me?"

"You were seen in a few different places, looking far too confident and _knowledgeable_ for what was going on."

"I'm a confident guy. That's kind of my thing. You seem pretty confident, too."

"Anyone can be confident in day-to-day life," the man said. "It takes a certain kind of knowledge to be confident when the whole world appeared to fall apart. Briefly."

"The world fell apart? I missed _that_ memo."

"Most people did, but I doubt you did. In fact, I think you sent the memo out."

"Uh. No. If that's all, I'll just be going." Tony started to stand up. The man behind him put a warning hand on his shoulder. "Okay. So I'll stick around a little while longer."

Tony thought in his head that there was no way that he was going to let these people know who was actually responsible for what had happened, but he missed his connection to Tim and Tim's power.

_I could really use a knower right now,_ he thought to himself.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_He was no longer in reality. He didn't know where he was, but it wasn't reality. Was he anywhere at all? He sat up and looked around._

_He was back in his waterfall sanctuary._

" _How did I get here?"_

_There was no response. He seemed to be alone._

_He looked at his hand. It was empty. There were no dragons. No tattoo. They were gone._

_He looked up and saw some flashes of red, green and blue. He knew those colors. He knew what that meant._

_Dragons._

_The last time the dragons had gone out of his sight, they'd come back and destroyed him._

_He got to his feet and watched for them. Would they attack him again? Was this the end, the end that he'd dreaded for a year?_

_The dragons came a lot closer. They were huge! No longer small and black. They were large, colorful. Alive._

_And getting closer._

_He couldn't run away, and for some reason, he didn't think he should anyway. He wasn't afraid. For the first time in a year, he wasn't afraid._

_The dragons swirled around him, but instead of tearing him apart as they had before, Tim felt strangely energized. The swirl lifted him up into the air, as they moved faster and faster._

_Then, he thought he heard something._

_A voice._

"I clapped my hands and believed in fairies."

_Tony?_

_He looked at the swirling colors around him and he saw something._

_Something he himself had never seen, never...known. He saw Tony sitting beside his limp body, and then..._

_x.x.x.x.x.x.x_

" _Rhian."_

_Tony had said she was there, but..._

" _Remember."_

"What!" Tony shouted. "You can't just say that. You have to give me more! I am not the knower! I never was. I'm just along for the ride!"

Rhian reached out, her translucent hand stretched toward him. Tony found himself reaching out himself. He didn't touch her, but he felt something when his hand passed through hers.

" _I am real. Believe."_

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

_He watched the event, not thinking to ask how it was that he was seeing all this. He watched as Tony declared that he refused to believe Tim was dead. ...and it even worked._

_This wasn't something he'd ever really considered. Sure, Tony had told him about what happened, but he hadn't really heard him, not really._

_Now, he was seeing it. He couldn't ignore it._

I could really use a knower right now.

_That was a thought that wasn't his own. It was coming from someone else._

_He focused his mind on that thought, wondering if the swirling colors would show him anything else._

_He was curious and it kept him from feeling worried._

There is no reality but the one contained within us.

_He heard the words as if they had been spoken._

_The reality he had in his mind was not a happy one. It was a continual fear of breaking what he'd made, fear of being asked to make the same sacrifice he'd made before. And worry. Always worrying that he'd find out that he'd done something wrong. It had been all on him. He had been the one required to do everything, to put it all back, and that kind of responsibility was just too much for him to take on._

_He was distracted from the thought he'd heard. How could he change that reality? He didn't see that he could suddenly get rid of that sick feeling he had every time he thought about what might happen if he'd done something wrong._

"So...when do you think I'll be able to go home?"

"When you answer our questions. Maybe."

"Ha. That's funny. But I've already answered them. You just don't like the answers."

_The voices drew him back out of himself and to the swirl. He saw Tony, sitting on a chair in a room, surrounded by people._

_It didn't look good for him. But why did they have him?_

_As if the dragons were waiting for him to ask the question, he saw another scene. This time, Tony was blindfolded, still sitting in the same chair._

"So...uh, I don't know what does it for you, but I usually like to see the person who's staring at me."

"I didn't think you would need to see. Don't you already _know_ what's going on?"

_He heard the emphasis and he suddenly understood what was going on. They had traced the source of what had happened to one person...only they'd got the person wrong!_

_He looked around at the swirl of color._

" _I need to get back! I have to find him! Let me out!"_

_For a moment, nothing changed. Then, the swirling stopped, almost instantly, and he found himself falling._

_And falling..._

_And falling..._


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Tony thought he saw something out of the corner of his eye and he turned to the side.

"Do you have something else on your mind, Agent DiNozzo?"

There was nothing; so he turned back.

"Nope. Since you know my name, mind telling me yours?"

"Yes, I do."

"Okay. How long is this little Q and A going to go on?"

The man leaned forward intently.

"Until you give us what we want."

"Which is what?"

"What did you do? How did you do it? Why? And when are you going to do it again?"

"Okay. Well, I didn't do anything. Since I didn't I can't tell you how. Again, I didn't. And since I didn't do it once, I won't be doing it again. Happy?"

The man's expression hardened just slightly. Tony saw it and it made him more than a little nervous. He was very controlled, but he'd showed that this was a personal thing for him as much as for whoever had told him to do this. Tony couldn't explain why, but he was pretty sure that someone else was calling the shots here.

Then, he felt a slight warming on his chest and _that_ was a real surprise. He recognized the feeling and it wasn't heartburn.

_Tim? What's going on?_

There was no response, and Tony hadn't really expected one, but he was pretty sure that this wasn't just a coincidence.

"Agent DiNozzo, I'm waiting."

"Why don't you tell me why you're so worried about it?" Tony asked. "If you're right, the world broke and got fixed. What's the problem?"

"Someone with the power to destroy the world isn't someone who should be roaming freely."

"Ah. So it's not knowledge you really want, is it. It's control. What makes you think you can control someone who could destroy the world?"

The man smiled a little.

"I notice that you're not pretending you know nothing about it, now."

"I still don't know anything. I'm curious. If you're right, I can destroy and, apparently, fix the world. Why would you think you can do anything to control me?"

The man's smile widened slightly, but not in a comforting way.

"That is the question, isn't it."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim opened his eyes and he was lying on his bed.

In his room.

He sat up quickly and looked at his hand. There was the tattoo. Dark. Black.

_What have I done? Just how much give does reality have?_

Slowly, he closed his fingers over the tattoo and brought it up to his mouth. For a long moment, he just sat there. Waiting.

And nothing happened.

Tim didn't know what he was waiting for, but he knew he was waiting.

He was afraid, and that was depressingly normal.

But nothing was happening. His tattoo was back to its former blackness. He'd had some kind of...dream in which his dragons had taken on a life of their own and nothing had happened.

Maybe, there was that much give?

He _had_ been told that there had been knowers before he had destabilized the world. He just didn't know how much they'd done.

_Whatever had been necessary._

The idea came out of nowhere.

So, if that was true, what was necessary, now? He'd heard Tony in a not-too-good situation, but he didn't know where that was. What he'd seen was mostly featureless. Two chairs in a room. He hadn't been able to see landmarks or even anything distinguishing about the building he was in.

_I always knew where to go before. I just started traveling and I knew._

Would that be the case now?

There was nothing to do but try.

...and hope that he didn't break anything. Like reality.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

"How long is this going to go on?" Tony asked.

"As long as it takes."

"Well, you're going to have to be disappointed, because I really can't help you. If what you think is true, you've got the wrong guy. I'm not powerful. I don't do anything special. I'm just a federal agent."

"Not just."

"That's true. I'm a very special federal agent," Tony said, nodding. "So tell me. Why in the world do you think I have anything to do with this?"

"For the last year, we've been investigating what happened in those few seconds. We've conducted interviews. Done major searches. Coordinated with other governments. No one has been able to narrow it down...because, while it happened _everywhere_ , it originated here. We found that there is one person who showed up in numerous places that he shouldn't have been. Three women in New York swear that they saw this man. A man in Illinois also claims that he was there. Then, a boat captain found this man with another man on an island in the Chesapeake. All in the same few seconds. He was missing from his place of employment on the day it all happened. The one place he _should_ have been, he wasn't."

Tony kept his expression bland, but inside, he was grimacing. It figured that his wanderings during the Fracture would have been remembered, even vaguely. He'd had no idea where he'd ended up with each step. He'd been a _lot_ of places before he'd finally got the hang of it and fell into the bay beside Tim. He hadn't seen people in every location, but he did remember people being around, on occasion. And, of course, Tim had been out of sight, out of mind. No one would have associated _him_ with all of that because he hadn't been where people could see him.

_Smart guy._

"And who would that be?"

"A federal agent named Anthony DiNozzo."

"So there are two of us, huh?"

He heard movement from behind him as the man took one step toward him. He tensed slightly.

"You're trying my patience."

"Oh, I do that with everybody. You're not special."

"Yes, I am."

"Why?"

There was another step toward him.

"Because I don't have any qualms about making you understand how annoyed I am."

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim got in his car and started driving, aimlessly at first. He didn't know if this would work. He didn't know if he _should_ be doing it.

For a knower, he sure didn't know much.

"A former knower," he muttered to himself.

Suddenly, he had a thought. It terrified him, but he was so used to being afraid that it wasn't as big a deal as it might be. Still, this was a dangerous idea and it wouldn't only be dangerous to him. It was late at night and there was less traffic, but still...

He closed his eyes and kept driving, trying to let that sense he'd always had lead him to where Tony was. Tony had been blindfolded.

He drove with his eyes closed.

_I'm driving with my eyes closed. If anyone sees me, I'll be in such big trouble._

Still, he kept going, hoping that this would work...and that he wouldn't kill anyone while doing something really stupid.

_I did this before. I knew where we were going without looking at the GPS when we went to Mongothsberd. Of course, I wasn't driving at the time..._

He felt like he needed to turn left. So he turned left and was actually still on a road. Over the next twenty minutes, he kept his eyes closed and didn't hit anything or anyone as he drove.

And then, he stopped and turned off the car. He opened his eyes and looked around.

He was on a long street with a few large, rundown homes. He wasn't sure where he was. He looked around.

"Mount Pleasant Street," he said. He didn't know where that was, but he supposed that didn't matter too much. If all else failed, they could just start driving. Hopefully, it wouldn't be necessary.

As he started walking up the street, he wondered which house, if any, Tony was in. He hesitated and then decided to dare a little. He lifted his hand and whispered.

"Three into one."

His dragons shivered and then swarmed off his hand. They vanished from sight and then, Tim felt a tug. He started walking again.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

The man stood up and walked out of the room, followed by one of the other men who had brought Tony here in the first place. Tony watched him go and then looked at the two remaining men.

"Any chance that you believe me and you'll just let me go?"

Neither of them dignified his question with an answer.

"I didn't think so."

Then, there was another flicker and Tony looked in surprise. He almost said something about what he was seeing but managed to stop himself at the last second.

_Dragons. I just saw dragons. Why did I just see dragons? Tim?_

Still nothing. There was no reason there should be. After all, Tim had removed that connection, but hadn't he removed Tony's ability to see supernatural things, too?

...but he'd seen Rhian _after_ Tim had fixed the world.

But if Tim was near here, looking for him...

 _Tim, if you can hear me, you need to stay away from here! They're looking for_ you _, and I don't think they want your autograph!_

No response.

But he was positive he had just seen Tim's dragons, and if Tim's dragons were here, Tim couldn't be far away. Tony really hoped that if Tim _was_ nearby, that he was more connected than he had been. The worried, anxious Tim that Tony had seen over the last year wouldn't be enough to get by these guys.

At the same time, Tony started trying to figure out what else he could do that might convince these guys that they really did have the wrong man. Since it was true, it should be easier than other things. However, the problem remained that Tony knew who it _was_ , and there was no way he was going to sell Tim up the river just to save his own skin.

The dragons were no longer visible. He didn't know if he should be glad of that or not.

"So what would happen if I just decided to make a run for it?"

One of the men smiled.

"Why don't you try it and see? I wasn't hired for my brains."

"Ah." That he would just say that made Tony pretty sure that while this guy might be hired muscle, he wasn't stupid enough to look the other way, and he wouldn't look too kindly on Tony just leaving. He would have to be cautious, especially since he didn't _look_ like hired muscle.

They'd have to let down their guard sometime, and if he didn't show up to work, _someone_ would miss him.

But would it be soon enough?

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

Tim saw the faint glow and headed up the sidewalk. He stopped in front of a house. It looked old, rundown, abandoned. Probably, at one time, it had been a really nice house. The siding was white...or it had been. It was dingy and dirty, now. There was a large, covered porch in the front. Two stories. It looked empty, but then, the windows were boarded up. If there were any lights on inside, he wasn't going to see them.

The dragons came back and returned to their position on his hand. There was a warmth there. He knew that this was where Tony was being held. He'd have to be careful.

_Careful? I just drove for miles with my eyes closed. Careful isn't exactly what I've been so far._

There was still that omnipresent worry that he shouldn't be here, that he shouldn't exist, that he shouldn't be able to do any of this anymore.

_But I'm doing it and I'm still existing. Tony made me exist and so here I am. I'm not letting him pay the price for that._

That was the bottom line, really. He couldn't stand back if Tony was being targeted for what Tim had done.

So why wasn't he doing anything? Why was he just standing there, staring at the house?

It was like all his strength had been sucked away by what had happened last year. He was a wimp, now.

The dragons began to stir again.

Tim felt them and he took a step forward.

The dragons stilled.

He paused.

They moved.

 _Okay, you want me to move forward...but why?_ Tim wondered. The dragons had never really shown any kind of consciousness before. They were an extension of his power, not living things. They were a tattoo, for goodness' sake!

Fine, he would ignore that part of what was going on. For the moment, anyway. He was here to find Tony. That was what he should be doing. He couldn't see any sign of life in the front of the house. Maybe around back. He didn't see a fence.

Aware that this would look bad and could be dangerous, Tim crept forward, feeling both worried and stupid. What if he'd just gone off his rocker? His dragons weren't behaving normally. How could they be doing all this on their own? Why wouldn't he be in control of them?

He walked around to the back of the house and was surprised to see two lights. One in a room on the second floor and one on the first floor. The front of the house was boarded up. It shouldn't be occupied. He crept toward the back door, hoping against hope that what he was doing wasn't going to be an act of colossal stupidity.

For just a moment, he paused and thought about calling Gibbs, but only for a moment. This was about the knower, and while both Gibbs and Ziva knew that something had happened and that it had involved Tim, they, like everyone else in the world, had forgotten the significance of all that. He didn't want to change it by bringing them into the situation.

No, it was up to him, a knower.

 _A former knower,_ he said to himself.

The dragons stirred on his palm, as if to remind him that it wasn't as much in the past as he thought it should be.

Well, hopefully, if that was the case, he could still use that power...whatever remained of it. He climbed up the steps to a small deck that, even in the darkness, looked plenty rotted. Tim could only hope that it would hold him. A stranger crashing through a deck in the backyard of an abandoned house would likely give him attention he didn't want. He took a step and tested the boards before continuing. They were old and weathered, but maybe not as rotted as they had seemed on first glance.

Another step forward and he peeked in the window. No one was in the room. It was the kitchen, and while it was clear that _someone_ had been in there recently, what with the dirty dishes in the sink and on the table, it was now empty. Okay. He refused to try and freeze the world. That was going too far, in his mind.

Back to the old Dutch-style door. There was no screen, just the door itself. He tried the rusty knob and it turned. Before opening the door, he reached over and put his hand on the hinges, feeling for rust (and the potential for squeaks). It seemed all right.

Slowly, he pushed the door open.

There was no squeak.

He looked around the kitchen. It was small and dingy. This house had definitely seen better days. Tangentially, Tim couldn't help wondering who owned it and whether or not it would be for sale.

Then, he stepped inside and looked around. There were two doors leading away from the kitchen. One looked like it went to the front of the house. The other looked to be headed for a dining room. Tim closed his eyes and clenched his fist over his tattooed palm.

_Which way?_

He felt a tug toward the front and so, cautiously, quietly, he started in that direction.

The hallway was narrow and Tim felt very nervous as he kept walking, but it was the way he needed to go. So far, the house seemed pretty much empty, but he was sure it wasn't.

When he got to the front, he saw that the front door was bolted shut. Then, he turned his attention to the stairs. They were fairly grand for as drab as the house seemed. They curved just slightly as they went up to the second floor. Someone had likely paid a lot of money for this staircase. Then, he glanced over toward another open door.

Still, there was no one.

A quiet, deep breath, and he started up the stairs.

Thankfully, not a single one creaked.

He got to the top of the stairs and he could see light shining under a door near the end of the hallway.

There were three other doors.

Suddenly, he sensed movement and he started to turn toward the door just to his right.

"I knew it would work. Don't move."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Tim froze in place and clenched his fist tightly. It was all too tempting to see what his dragons could still do. In fact, he could feel them trembling in his palm, but no. No, he wasn't going to let that become common knowledge, even if these people seemed to know something about it already.

The man moved forward, quickly frisked Tim, took his gun and then stepped back.

"All right. Walk."

Tim said nothing, but he obeyed.

At the door letting a little bit of light into the hall, the man stopped him. He reached around and opened the door.

"Get inside."

Tim did as he was told, and there was Tony, sitting on a chair.

...just like he'd seen in that vision or dream or whatever.

"Hey, Tony," Tim said with a weak smile.

Tony looked anything but happy to see Tim, and Tim could just imagine all the things that Tony was wanting to rant at him, but he wouldn't. Not right now.

"Agent McGee. I didn't think it would be you."

Tim looked away from Tony and at the man who had found him. He was surprised that he recognized him. One of the men who had forced Gibbs to come to his place the day before the Fracture. That figured. He would probably have vague memories of the things he'd known before and couldn't let those go.

"You didn't think _what_ would be me?" he asked, wondering how much this man actually knew.

"The power to destroy the world. I can't imagine that being found in someone like you. Of course, we knew that you were with Agent DiNozzo after, but all the reports were of someone who was one step away from a complete meltdown. Nothing to indicate that you were the epicenter of what happened."

"I wasn't," Tim said, thinking that epicenter was the entirely wrong word. An epicenter was simply the surface location of an earthquake. Tim wasn't the location. He was the cause, the beginning _and_ the ending of it all. He was the colliding tectonic plates, not the epicenter.

"But you don't deny that something happened."

Tim found that, in spite of the last year of being terrified that he'd destroy the world or that the world would destroy him, being faced with the danger of a strictly physical sort was almost a relief, and he wasn't really afraid. Oh, he was a bit worried about what might happen, but he wasn't afraid.

"How could I? The whole world knows that something happened, but I wasn't the epicenter."

"Then, what were you?"

Tim said nothing. Why make it easy on him?

The man looked beyond Tim and at Tony.

"We knew it couldn't have been Agent DiNozzo, but we were pretty sure that he was involved somehow. He went all over the place, but there doesn't appear to have been any rhyme or reason to it."

Tony raised an eyebrow, and Tim guessed he was feeling a little insulted.

"But we figured that if we took him, either he would tell us who it was or it would flush out the real culprit. Who would have ever guessed that the man responsible for destroying the world would be someone like you?"

Tim just shrugged. He'd never thought it was _fair_ that it was someone like him. Other people finding it hard to believe didn't surprise him.

"You have nothing in your history to indicate anything special."

"I'm not special," Tim said, keeping his hand tightly clenched. There was an urge building up inside him, a power building up that he was trying to keep in check. He didn't know how long he could stop himself from letting it go, but he didn't know what would happen if he did.

"Then, why are you here?"

"Because you abducted a friend of mine, and since you were trying to get at me, I couldn't stand back and let you hurt him."

"He's not hurt, are you, Agent DiNozzo?"

"I'm tired, and I've got work tomorrow. You definitely owe me for the head slap I'll probably get if I'm late or not at the top of my game."

The man raised his eyebrow. Tim could see that there was a genuine risk of something being done to Tony just because of his connection to Tim.

"Look, if I answer your questions, will you let him go?"

"Answer my questions, first."

"Hey!" Tony said.

"Shut up, Tony," Tim said with a sigh. "There's no reason to pretend. They know it's me. They know it's not you. Might as well work with what we have."

...which wasn't much, if he kept his power bottled up.

The man kicked the chair over to Tim.

"Sit down. Don't move. My men don't appreciate having to exert themselves and they tend to take it out on the people who make it necessary."

Two of the men left, and two stayed behind. One by the window. One at the door.

"Sorry about all this, Tony."

"McGee, are you out of your mind? What were you thinking to–?"

Tony grabbed Tim's wrist and then dropped it as if he'd felt an electric shock. He looked at Tim's clenched fist and raised his eyebrows in a silent question.

"You can't really expect me to stand back and let you get the blame for what I did, can you? Because you should know me better than that."

"I was doing just fine."

"Yeah, so fine that you got taken by these guys, blindfolded, and held in this room being questioned and threatened for a couple of hours. Real fine, there, DiNozzo."

"How did you know about all that?" Tony asked in a low voice.

Tim put his open hand on Tony's shoulder and concentrated. He hadn't tried to speak to Tony's mind ever since he'd removed that connection. He knew it was still possible, but he wasn't sure he could do it.

_Because I saw something. I can't explain it right now, but something happened and I couldn't ignore that any more than I could ignore what it showed me about you._

_You're being an idiot, Tim. They were using me to get to you._

_Yep, and that's the way it goes. However this falls out, I'm not letting you pay the price for my actions. It doesn't work that way._

Quickly, Tim broke contact, preventing Tony from continuing to rant at him. Tony looked down at Tim's fist again. Tim just shrugged. He didn't want to give Tony any false hope since he had no idea what might happen when he let that go. Besides, Tim was hoping that Tony might be let go. While this probably wasn't officially sanctioned by anyone, he guessed that the man in charge had been given this assignment by someone important. That meant that Tim could, conceivably, disappear and nothing anyone did would change it. It wasn't the best option in the world, but he'd take that over Tony paying the price.

The door opened again.

"Hey, look, this guy is crazy," Tony said. "He's just trying to help me out. He doesn't know anything about it."

The man in charge basically ignored Tony completely. He looked at Tim for a long moment without speaking.

"Take Agent DiNozzo to the other room."

"You're not letting him go?" Tim asked.

"You haven't answered my questions yet."

"Will you let him go if I do?"

"Maybe."

Tim shook his head. "No. That's not how it works. You're asking for answers. Answers you apparently want _really_ bad. I have something you want. You have something I want. You promise that you'll let him go, and I'll promise to give you answers."

Tim hoped that the man wouldn't see through him and see how little he could actually do at this point. He was trying to be as he had been before when knowing had given him security, even as he'd hated being special. He was trying _not_ to be as he was now when knowing only made things worse.

"Very well, but if I'm not satisfied, the deal's off."

"Fine."

"Tim, this is a bad idea," Tony said.

"It's the only idea, Tony," Tim said. Then, he smiled. "Trust me. You used to."

"I never did. Why do you think I kept hanging around?" Tony retorted, but he smiled, too.

Then, he was dragged out of the room and Tim was left alone with the man in charge and one man standing behind him.

"So? Ask your questions," Tim said.

"What happened last year?"

"Reality was breaking. It broke completely and was rebuilt."

"Then, what is it that people remember?"

"That last fraction of a second when the reality right around them disappeared and then, they vanished with it into the Void. When reality was repaired, there was just that moment that people remembered. Most people. Some remembered a second or two more, especially as reality was being rebuilt. It didn't happen all at once. It took time...once there was time to take."

The man raised an eyebrow.

"You seem very calm about all this."

"Reality got fixed. What is there to be upset about?"

"And yet, all reports that I had of _you_ were of someone about to fracture into pieces. Not someone who just rebuilt the world after he'd destroyed it."

"I didn't rebuild the world. I didn't destroy it, either."

"Then, what _did_ you do?"

"I rebuilt reality."

"What's the difference?"

Tim smiled a little. "You can figure that kind of thing out yourself. You don't need me to explain it."

"I thought you were going to answer my questions."

"Don't you know the difference between reality and the world? The world is just physical. If the world was destroyed, we'd be dead, but the rest of life would go on. If reality gets destroyed, there's nothing...at least, nothing that we can comprehend. That's the difference."

"And it was reality that you destroyed?"

"Reality is what was destroyed. It had to be because it couldn't tolerate the stresses on it."

"Stresses?"

"Yes. I can't explain it in words; so if you're going to ask more questions, I can't answer those. It defies description. Anything else?"

"Why did everyone forget?"

"They didn't forget. Once reality had been rebuilt, it hadn't happened anymore. It didn't break. It's fine."

 _I hope_ , Tim added silently. He was relieved that he could speak about it so calmly, especially since his hand was now throbbing with how tightly he was clenching his fist.

"Then, why do they remember?"

"Because nobody's perfect," Tim said.

"Including you?"

"Including me."

"So why you?"

"It had to be someone."

"Why?"

"Because when something is breaking, someone needs to fix it."

"What makes you qualified?"

"Who said I was?" Tim asked with an ironic smile. "I never made that claim. You may assume it, but I never said it."

"If you weren't qualified, why did you do it?"

"I wasn't given a choice."

"By whom?"

Tim raised an eyebrow. "An imprisoned ghost and the anthropomorphization of Sleep. Now, do you understand?"

The man glared at him.

"I've answered your questions. Now, let my friend go."

"Oh, I have a lot more questions."

Tim leaned back and smiled without any levity, even as his heart sank into his stomach. So much for getting out of this without having to do anything spectacular.

"Oh, I see. So many questions that there won't be an end to them. Right?"

"Something like that."

"You haven't changed one bit," Tim said, shaking his head.

"Oh? I wasn't aware that we'd met."

"We didn't _meet_. You just barged into my life, thinking you could dictate to me what reality should be when you didn't have a clue. You were wrong then. You're still wrong now, even without remembering."

"What am I wrong about?"

"You've never asked yourself a very important question."

"What's that?"

He could feel the dragons on his palm. He wouldn't be able to control them for much longer. ...and it didn't help that he didn't _want_ to control them. He _wanted_ to unleash them at this man who still didn't realize what he was trying to do.

"What kind of power do I have that I could destroy _and_ create reality. And what might I do to stop you."

Then, throwing all the caution of the last year to the winds, Tim flung his clenched fist forward, spread out his fingers and shouted words he'd avoided saying in a year.

"Three into one!"

The dragons, finally called, burst off his hand in an explosion of green, red and blue light. They looked strange, hard and flinty. This wasn't the metallic look they'd had at the Fracture. Nor was it the original softer colors. These dragons had a strange luster, but Tim saw that they hadn't lost any power, perhaps it was stronger simply because Tim had been restraining them. The man was flung backward. Tim spun around to confront the other man only to see _him_ frozen in place.

_I stopped time. Should I have done that?_

He'd never really planned on stopping time, not even before the Fracture. It had just happened when it was necessary.

_Yes, I should have done that._

But there was more. How was he going to keep this from happening again? He couldn't spend the rest of his life wondering whether or not he would be found again.

His dragons were ricocheting around the room, as if they were part of a pinball table. Tim swallowed and raised his hand to call them back.

Then, he paused and thought again.

Maybe...


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Tony sat on yet another hard-backed chair in yet another empty room. This one was a lot smaller than the first one had been. It was just across the hall. The only window was boarded up. The only furniture was the chair. There was one guy in here with him and the other was probably out in the hall, just in case. He still wasn't tied up, but he was still being careful about that.

He was more than a little irritated, but he knew that one of the reasons for his irritation made no sense. He was a little offended that these guys had known he wasn't the knower. That didn't seem fair. After all he'd done, he should at least be a viable candidate.

 _And then, they'd be after you, DiNozzo. Get over it,_ Tony thought to himself.

Still, he was also irritated that Tim had walked right into their trap when he could have just stayed away.

_Yeah, right. Tim, stay away from trouble?_

Except that Tony had thought it was genuinely possible with how much Tim had changed in the last year. In a way, it was a relief to see him acting like himself. At the same time, could Tim have had worse timing for getting back into the groove of existing?

Tony looked at his guard. He might not be as intimidating as the other guy, but he wasn't slacking off at all. In fact, he actually seemed a little nervous.

"You're not afraid of me, are you?" Tony asked.

The man said nothing.

"I mean, we've already established that I'm not the one with the crazy powers. Have you ever seen–? Oh, I guess you wouldn't have."

"Seen what?" the man asked.

"The dragons, man," Tony said with a grin.

The man rolled his eyes.

"So you really have no idea what I'm talking about, then? I'm not kidding. Dragons. Now, they're probably not _really_ real, but what they do _is_ real. Crazy stuff. How else do you think he managed to destroy the world? After all, he's just one guy. Has to have _something_ helping him. And he used dragons. Why dragons? I don't know, but they work."

"Shut up."

But he looked more nervous.

"They're always around. He can call on them anytime he wants. You ever wonder why he would just waltz in here without any backup or anything? Because he _has_ backup. He's powerful enough to be his _own_ backup."

Tony was totally having fun with this, but he was fudging a little. Tim had always needed backup because he had different kinds of challenges.

Still, the guy was looking more and more nervous.

Tony was just getting ready to launch into another long description of the dragons and how they could rip apart reality when there was a shout from the other room. He started to stand up, but the guard was edgy enough that he had his gun out in a moment.

"Don't move."

Tony raised his hands in capitulation.

"Whatever you say, but you know, you'll be better off if you're not threatening him. He doesn't take that kind of thing very well."

 _It scares him like it would anyone else,_ Tony thought to himself.

Then, there was a strange silence.

"Uh oh," Tony said, aloud.

The man froze. At first, Tony just thought it was fear, but then, he realized that the man was _actually_ frozen in place.

_As if time had just stopped._

"Tony! You still up here?"

Tony got up and walked out into the dark hallway, light spilling out onto the closed door. He looked up and down and then saw Tim standing near the stairs.

"Right here, Tim," he said.

Tim ran back over to him. He looked a little strained and more than a little nervous.

"You're all right?" he asked.

"Yeah. Are you?"

"Maybe. I don't know. I think so. If I can just hold all this together."

"All _what_ together?" Tony asked, feeling a little nervous himself.

"I don't know how long I can keep time frozen. I'm not sure how far it extends and I don't know how long I _should_ be doing this. So can we talk after we get out?"

"Okay. Sure."

Tim walked with him, even a step or two in front which was slightly amusing.

"How did you get free?"

"Same way I have in the past," Tim said, shortly.

"It still works?"

"Yep. But it's different. Don't know how to explain it."

Tim kept walking. They got to the stairs.

"Funny how much nicer it is walking when I can see," Tony said. "...but the scenery isn't all that impressive."

Tim said nothing. Tony guessed that he was concentrating on something. He looked around. The walls were bare, but there were a few places where the old, ratty wallpaper hadn't faded, indicating pictures had hung there.

Instead of heading for the front door which was right at the foot of the stairs, Tim turned and headed to the back of the house.

"Hey, where are you going?" Tony asked. "The door is right here. We came in it. I know it works."

"I don't want to leave any more signs of my being here than is necessary. I came in through the back," Tim said. "We're leaving that way."

"Okay. Fine by me. As long as we leave."

"We're leaving," Tim said.

They were going down the hall toward the kitchen when Tim stumbled. Tony hurried to catch up to him.

"You sure you're all right, Tim?"

"Let's just get out," he said.

They got out of the house, and then, Tim led Tony around to the front of the house. In the street light, Tony could see that Tim was pale. He grabbed him by the arm.

"What's going on, Tim?"

"I'm doing a little too much at once. You can drive."

Tony looked around. It was hard to tell if everything was frozen because it was so late, but he hadn't seen Tim this wiped out since they'd been trapped in the demon world and...

He grabbed Tim's hand and looked at it.

No dragons.

"What else are you doing?"

Tim didn't respond. He just kept walking, looking worse and worse, the further he walked.

"Where's your car?"

"Just...down the street. I didn't...know where you were, at first."

Tim stumbled again and looked like he was about to collapse. Tony quickly put his arm around Tim's waist.

"I'm okay, Tony."

"So if I let you go, you wouldn't just fall over?"

Tim smiled a little. "I might fall over, but I'd still be okay."

He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out his keys. He tried to hand them over to Tony, but they slipped from his fingers.

"Can't you let something go?" Tony asked.

Tim shook his head.

"Not yet."

"Where are we?"

"Mount Pleasant Street. I don't know where other than that."

"Didn't you see when you were coming?"

Tim started to sag against Tony.

"No, I had my eyes closed."

"You're kidding," Tony said. He looked at Tim. "You're not kidding."

"Nope."

"You're insane."

"I'm sure a lot of people would agree."

"All right, let's just get out of here."

"Sounds...good to me."

Tony leaned over and picked up Tim's keys. Then, he hauled Tim down the street until he saw his car. He got Tim into the passenger seat and then, he got into the driver's seat and started the car. Almost immediately, Tim put his head back on the seat and sighed with relief.

There was an almost imperceptible change in the world around him.

"How much did you stop?"

"I don't know," Tim said. "Maybe all of it. I've never known that part. I just know that I did it, and now, I've let it go. That makes everything else a lot easier."

"Okay. So where's your tattoo?"

"It's...out there."

"Doing what besides wiping you out?"

"Fixing a problem."

"What problem is that?"

Tim closed his eyes as Tony drove away.

"The problem that led to you being taken here. People remembered just enough...and yet, not enough. I never really considered the possibility that someone would remember enough to be obsessed with trying to find me. Man, I hate that guy."

"Wait, you _knew_ him?"

"Sort of. He showed up at my place with a few others before the Fracture. He tried to force me to fix things before it was right. I had to threaten him, then. I went a little beyond that, this time."

Tony wasn't sure he liked the sound of that.

"What did you do, this time?"

"I let him know he'd made a mistake. I...I don't think I killed him, but I'm hoping that what I've done will keep him from trying to find me again."

Tony stopped the car and looked at Tim.

"What did you do?"

"I used my dragons to...get that out of his mind."

"But where are they?"

"He wasn't working alone."

"They're doing it everywhere?"

"Not _everywhere_ , just the people who need to forget about it."

"How many?"

"I don't know. They know."

"Who?"

Tim held up his empty palm.

"Um...can they _know_ anything? They're not really alive. They're a tattoo."

Tim shrugged. "How did they know what to do when I destroyed and rebuilt reality? I sent them out and they did it."

"How will you know if it worked?"

Tim actually smiled a little, still with his eyes closed.

"I'll know."

Tony found himself smiling back. He slugged Tim on the shoulder.

"Ah, there's the knower I know."

"Maybe not. Things were different this time, Tony."

"Well, you were kind of not being yourself for a year. Of course, it would feel different."

"No, not like that. That's a whole different thing."

"But you're not denying it."

"No. I'm not. It's obvious to everyone even if they don't know why."

"So...you going to go back to that?"

"I don't know. Depends on what happens next."

"Meaning?"

Tim took a deep breath and finally opened his eyes. He stared up at the top of the car. Tony realized that he had almost expected to see the empty eye sockets of the dreamer, but Tim's eyes were normal.

"The last time I sent the dragons to do something, they came back and tore me apart. Tony, I can't even explain in words how that felt. It wasn't like dying. I've already done that before."

Tony winced at the reminder. He still had nightmares about that on occasion.

"It was way worse than dying. That's why I've never wanted to talk about it. I can't explain it, and it's the worst thing that I've ever experienced. It's not pain. It goes beyond pain into a whole other realm. Probably the closest was what happened to you when you got me to use the dreamer."

Tony winced again. That was another thing he dreamed about sometimes.

"Right now, I'm terrified that when they come back, that will happen again."

"If you're so worried, why do it?"

"Because I can't let you get targeted by other people like this. These guys didn't hesitate to just grab you to flush me out. What if it hadn't worked? What else might they have done?"

"Hey, I can handle it."

Tim shook his head and looked at him. "No, Tony. It doesn't matter whether or not you can. You _shouldn't_ , and I can't stand by when I know I can try something to fix it."

Tony started driving again.

"When will they get back?" he asked.

"I have no idea. I'm sure that I'll see them soon."

"Okay. Then, as soon as we figure out where we are, we'll go back to my place and you'll wait until they get back."

"I can just go home," Tim said, sounding very weary.

"No, you can't. Besides, there's something we've got to do."

"What's that?"

"When your dragons are back and everything's cool again, we have a movie to watch."

Tim looked at him in confusion, for just a moment. Then, to Tony's relief, he started to smile, looking more like his old self than he had in a year.

" _The Road to Hong Kong_ isn't as good."

"Well, I think I jumped the gun in having us watch _Road to Bali_ , but this is the last one."

"You think it would really be the end?"

"I thought the last one would be the end."

"What if it isn't?"

"Then, we'll find another cheesy series to watch."

Tim raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"Aren't you sick of this?"

"Are you?" Tony asked.

"I've been sick of it since day one."

"You mean when you were five?"

"Yeah."

"I don't blame you. Hey! I know where we are!"

Tim sat up for a moment.

"The Beltway," he said.

"Excellent," Tony said. "Now, I can get home."

Tim just nodded and closed his eyes again. Tony didn't bother talking anymore. He was glad that Tim had finally said something and he wasn't retreating. But he _really_ hoped that when Tim's dragons returned, everything would be normal. No more dying or not existing. Just living.


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

Tony got to his apartment without incident or any sign of pursuit. Tim made a couple of feeble protests about going up there and then let Tony support him up the stairs. He collapsed onto the couch and closed his eyes again. Tony sat down and waited.

"How long will it take?" he asked.

Tim shrugged and didn't answer.

"Okay."

There was silence for about ten minutes. Then, suddenly, Tim sat up and looked around, clearly on edge.

"They coming?" Tony asked.

Tim didn't reply. He closed his eyes and held out his hand. Tony could see that he was shaking a little. The only question was whether it was from fear or from exhaustion.

Maybe both.

After a few seconds, Tim's fingers started to close and he held up his arm with his other hand.

"It's going to be fine, Tim," Tony said, in a low voice.

He wasn't sure Tim had heard him, but then...

"I hope so," Tim whispered, and his fingers straightened.

Then, Tony saw a flash of color. He kept himself from pointing that out. Tim was the knower and he was actually doing what he knew to do.

There they were. The dragons came into the room, and they weren't large and roaring like they had been after the Fracture. They were bright, almost blinding, but they were small, as they'd formerly been.

They flew around the room and then moved to dance around Tim's head and swirl down his arm until they took up their rightful place on Tim's hand.

Tim closed his hand into a fist and then slumped back onto the couch, resting his fist against his forehead.

"Everything okay?" Tony asked.

Tim nodded.

"You're feeling all right?"

Another nod.

"No dying or anything like that?"

Tim shook his head.

"Good."

Tim lowered his fist and opened his hand.

The tattoo was there just like usual, but extremely dark and black.

"That looks different," Tony said. "Looks almost like they're burned in, like a brand or something."

"Yeah."

"What does that mean?"

"That they're not going anywhere."

"Does it hurt?"

"No."

"Will people notice?"

"Probably not."

Tony grinned. Tim raised an eyebrow.

"What?"

"I like it when you have all the answers."

Tim smiled tiredly.

"I...I almost don't."

"So...you're not going to go back to avoiding all this, right?"

Tim traced the shape of his tattoo.

"I guess I can't. I probably shouldn't."

"No, you definitely shouldn't."

"I would have thought that you'd prefer it," Tim said, looking up at him.

"No way. I have to keep my position as the only other person in the world who knows what happened last year."

"You'd still know about it even if I didn't talk about it. If you didn't forget after, then, you're not going to."

"You know what I mean," Tony said, seriously.

"Yeah, I know. I just hoped that...it would go away. It's not like I can really do anything about it, and it was made very clear to me that I still have to be what I was."

"You _have_ to?"

Tim nodded.

"You want to unpack that a little? Who's making you? Greta again?"

"No. I don't think she really cares...if she's even still a she anymore. That's one of the things I was fixing, you know."

"Then, who is?"

Tim smiled a little and held up his hand.

"They are."

"I don't like that you're referring to your tattoo as something alive."

"I don't know that they _are_ alive."

"Okay. Now, you're really confusing me."

"Rhian gave this to me as a symbol of who and what I am...and it's become a way of using that power that I have." Tim looked at the tattoo again and took a deep breath. "Even though I discovered that I _need_ that in order to be me, I hoped that I could ignore it, that I could _stop_ being that and just live a life that's...normal. But I can't. I can't ignore a part of me and hope to live a normal life because my normal isn't your normal. My normal _is_...having a dragon tattoo that can come to life, move around, fly off my hand and do things. _That_ is normal for me, and I guess the part of me that's always known that was making it clear to the rest of me."

"You're talking about yourself like you have different personalities or something, you know," Tony said.

Tim shook his head. "No. Just one person who has been trying to figure out how to live in a world that he thought shouldn't have him in it. I've been so afraid of destroying the reality I built that I forgot I lived in it before it got broken. I forgot that it was a knower who set it up to be broken in the first place. Or I was just too freaked out to think about it."

"Probably, the last one."

"Yeah, probably."

"So... what now?"

"Well...you want to watch a movie?" Tim asked.

"A Road picture, perhaps?" Tony asked, with a grin.

"Maybe. I heard there was one we still hadn't watched."

"I just so happen to have it, right here," Tony said.

He got up and walked over to his movies. He pulled _The Road to Hong Kong_ off the shelf and displayed it with a flourish. Tim laughed.

"Been planning this for long?"

"Nope, not really, but I always had it just in case. I didn't have all the Road pictures when this whole thing started, you know."

"You didn't?"

"Nope. I only had three, I think. I bought the others after the second time, just in case we needed them."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Tony shrugged, feeling a little awkward. "Believe it or not, Tim, I've hated how things were in the last year. I know you hated all this stuff that you had to do, but we got to be friends because of it, and I...didn't like how that was changing because you were trying to avoid it all. I kept hoping you'd change your mind."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I never even thought about you actually _liking_ having to deal with it."

"Well, liking _that_ is a bit of a stretch. But being friends...I missed that."

Tim nodded. "Me, too."

"All right, then," Tony said lightly. "Enough mushy stuff. Let's watch the movie."

"Okay."

He started the movie going and sat down by Tim.

x.x.x.x.x.x.x

" _The Italians!"_

Tim smiled as he watched the end of the movie. Of all the things he could have done after facing the fact that he was still a knower, this was the best that he could think of.

He looked over at Tony and grinned when he realized that Tony had fallen asleep. That was pretty much par for the course. They'd only managed to stay awake all the way through one or two of these movies.

As far as supernatural adventures went, this one had been pretty tame, Tim had to admit. In fact, right now, he could honestly say that it had been a good thing for him.

However, he was still a little worried about how effective his attempt had been. He didn't like the idea that he'd just have to hope that it had worked.

Then, he looked at his tattoo. The dragons shivered a little.

"Show me," he whispered.

The dragons swirled around on his hand and then formed a circle. Tim lifted his hand up to eye level and watched as the dragons visited multiple people, swirled around their heads and then moved on. Somehow, he knew that their memories had been wiped of the memory that had led to searching for Tim. He couldn't hope to remove all memories of what had happened last year, but he could close the thoughts that had meant people needed to search for the one responsible for it.

That was the best he could hope for, and strangely, it was enough.

Tim gently closed his fingers over his tattoo and the image vanished. When he opened them up again, his tattoo was back to normal...at least, it was back to the new normal. Could he accept that?

_Yes._

It didn't necessarily make things perfect, but it made them easier.

Tony suddenly inhaled and sat up, looking around blearily.

"I'm...I'm ready."

"For what, Tony?"

Tony yawned widely and then looked toward Tim.

"Um...what?"

"What are you ready for?" Tim asked.

"I...I don't know. The movie over?"

"Yep. You missed it."

"That's okay. I saw enough." Then, Tony raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you all right?"

Tim thought about it for a second and then nodded.

"Yeah, Tony. I am. For the first time in a year, I'm all right."

"So...no more avoiding me because you don't want to talk about it?"

"I still don't want to talk about it much, but no."

"Good. I can work with that. So...anything else coming down the pike that I should know about?"

Tim laughed. "Not as far as I know...but you know...in the real world..."

"Yeah. Nothing is quite what it seems," Tony said. "That's plenty obvious."

"Yeah."

"Well, I'm going to bed. Feel free to camp out on the couch."

"Will do."

Tony got up to leave but he stopped.

"It's nice to have you back, Tim."

"Thanks, Tony. For everything."

Tony just nodded and went into his bedroom. Tim lay back on the couch and looked at his tattoo again. Would he be called on again? He didn't know, but now, he knew he could face it if necessary.

"Nothing is what it seems to be," Tim said softly. "Not even me."

Then, he closed his eyes and went to sleep.

FINIS!


End file.
